The Tanzania Civil Aviation Authority (TCAA) has entrusted Indra with a key project to enhance aviation safety and sustainability in the country and on the rest of the continent. The company will implement one of the most advanced aeronautical information management (AIM) systems in existence to provide airlines and controllers with reliable, updated and high-quality aeronautical data and enable them to plan and manage flights much more efficiently.
As global air traffic has increased and become more complex, the number of alerts and aeronautical bulletins published on paper by all kinds of entities, from airports and weather services to air forces and navigation service providers, has expanded to such an extent that it’s now virtually impossible for a pilot to read them all. This poses a safety risk and means that the pre-flight planning isn’t as accurate as it should be, leading to the making of en-route corrections that consume both time and fuel.
To address this problem, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has promoted the transition from Aeronautical Information Services to Aeronautical Information Management (AIM) systems that allow to handle all these data digitally, helping pilots to access the relevant information much more rapidly and conveniently. But the system not only facilitates consultations, it also “controls the entire process, from the moment the data are generated until they reach the intended user, thus ensuring that all the parties maintain high-quality, reliable and updated data”, explained Jon Goyarzu, managing director of Indra’s division specialized in this type of solutions based in Germany, who added that “we make sure that the right information is available whenever it’s needed.”
With this project, Indra will position TCAA among the advanced air navigation service providers that are leading the deployment of a critical technology in Africa to facilitate more sustainable and profitable flight operations.
The company will thereby strengthen its commitment to sustainability, a field in which it has become a global benchmark in, after being chosen as the most sustainable technological company for the third consecutive year by the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI) it has been listed on for 18 years, achieving near perfection after this year being awarded a score of no fewer than 99 points out of 100.
The implementation of the AIM system will also pave the way for TCAA to later incorporate the SWIM system, the aeronautical intranet that’s set to connect all the actors involved in flight management and operation.
In fact, Indra’s AIM system incorporates the version 5 of the AIXM (Aeronautical Information Exchange Model) database, the most advanced one in existence and one of the key components for the implementation of the SWIM system.
Moreover, this database is the common access point or “single point of truth” that ensures that all the parties involved in the management of a flight share the same updated view of the situation. “It’s a system that feeds the other applications of the AIM system as electronic flight plans, electronic aeronautical information publications (eAIPs), electronic aeronautical charts, flight procedure design,, aerodrome mapping data (AMDB), graphics of the airspace structure and electronic terrain and obstacle data (eTOD). The system also supports the web portal that allows pilots to file, view and plan their flights wherever they are”, explains Jon Goyarzu.
Indra has supplied its AIM system to major navigation service providers around the world, including NATS (United Kingdom), AVINOR (Norway), dans (Dubai), CAAT (Thailand), VATM (Vietnam), UCAA (Uganda), CAAM (Malaysia), ASA (Cape Verde), ANS CR (Czech Republic), LPS (Slovakia), Slovenia Control (Slovenia), CATS (Cambodia), DINAC (Paraguay), among others.
Beyond information systems, Indra is the leading ATM and CNS system provider in the Maghreb and throughout the African continent, with major projects in countries such as Morocco, Cape Verde, Algiers and Kenya. It also works with the 17 members of the Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA). In this regard, the project that’s now being launched in Tanzania will provide a new boost for the company’s position on the continent. “We’re very proud to be modernizing air infrastructures that will reinforce Africa’s connectivity with the rest of the world”, declared Jon Goyarzu, Managing Director.
